Imagine making eye contact with a little reptile that looks like a chunky snake with a more boxy head. He’s a thick one! After looking at this little guy for a minute I noticed he had tiny little legs! Snakes can’t have legs right? Does that mean it’s a type of lizard? There are all sorts of funky little critters that are wandering around in the world, so I felt the need to investigate.
Update: He is a skink, not a snake.
But what the heck is a skink? That looks like I just misspelled skunk and those are definitely not reptiles!
Skinks are often grouped in with lizards, and although they have some snake-like features, there are some big differences (besides having legs).
The first skink that I saw in person was named Newton and he was a New Guinea Blue Tongued Skink. There are 7 types of blue-tongued skinks found in mainly warm areas of the world. However, there are many types of skinks found all around the world with all sorts of abilities. Blue-tongued skinks live up to their name as they have a bright blue tongue that makes it look like they ate too many popsicles! Their tongue is blue regardless of what they eat, as it is a mimicry defense mechanism to try to show predators that they could be dangerous or poisonous. These types of skinks can also give live birth and can have up to 13 babies! Unlike snakes that mostly lay eggs. Because skinks are like lizards, they also shed in multiple pieces, whereas snakes shed in one piece (including the clear scale over their eyelid!)
Newton was cute, but nowhere near fast. He also loved eating meat, but because he isn’t the fastest, snails and slugs make good protein sources for him. They also have the ability to drop their tail if a predator, like a large bird, tries to grab them by it. This is a last resort, as it takes a lot of energy to regrow a whole tail! It’s a helpful tactic though, the tail will keep wiggling, to distract the bird, giving the skink a head start on his route to escape.
The second type of skink I met was a tree-climbing skink named Fern. Although most skinks spend their life on the ground, she was built different. These skinks have a prehensile tail (like a monkey) which enables them to grip onto the branches. She also had some long nails that any girl with acrylics would be jealous of. She was a herbivore and loved eating all the leafy greens. This type of skink is from the Solomon Islands which is where pothos plants are from! Although Fern’s dragon-like face was quite cute, she would not make my guest invite list as she would be munching all my pothos plants.
There are some types of skinks that live in Washington State, so if you are local, keep your eye out for these not-quite snakes with legs.